from an observation plane; and (2) the code technique is one-time pad, so unless the code folk have kept all their WWII records, we'll never know what it says

Fascinating.

An encrypted World War II message found in a fire place strapped to the remains of a dead carrier pigeon may have been cracked by a Canadian enthusiast.

Gord Young, from Peterborough, in Ontario, says it took him 17 minutes to decypher the message after realising a code book he inherited was the key.

Mr Young says the 1944 note uses a simple World War I code to detail German troop positions in Normandy.

GCHQ says it would be interested to see his findings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20749632

His scheme is to read down and usually take the 5-letter blocks as acronyms

AOAKN = Artillery observer at 'K' Sector, Normandy
RQXSR = Requested headquarters supplement report
PABUZ = Panzer attack - blitz
UAOTA = West Artillery Observer Tracking Attack
LKXGH = Lt Knows extra guns are here
KLDTS = Know where local dispatch station is

and so on. Alleged translation is at HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/16/world-war-2-pigeon-code-cracked_n_2311364.html

One major problem is: there's really no just possibility of communicating effectively in this manner using only acronyms

For example, in decoding RQXSR and LKXGH and KLDTS

how do we know the X in RQXSR stands for HQ but the X in LKXGH stands for EXTRA? or that that L in LKXGH signifies LT but the L in KLDTS signifies LOCAL?

Moreover, if this is based on a WWI code book, how come there's code for PANZER and BLITZ?